National 14x12 Brood Box

National Standard Floor

Made from Cedar or Red Deal with a ply floor and timber lipping. Comes with entrance block.

Assembled Cedar £34.02Assembled Red Deal £28.55

Flat Pack National 14x12 Brood Box

Cedar £59.25Red Deal £37.66

Framed Queen Excluder

Framed Queen Excluders suitable for both top and bottom bee space. £17.89

Apiguard Crown Board

Facilitates administration of 'Apiguard' and can be used as a Clearer Board with the supplied Porter Bee Escapes. £17.23

Crown Board

Can also be used as a Clearer Board with the supplied Porter Bee Escapes. £13.55

Polycarbonate Quilt

Transparent alternative to the Crown Board. Allows viewing bees with minimal disruption to the colony. £17.21

Snelgrove Board

Invented by Leonard Snelgrove for the purpose of effective swarm/colony splitting and management.
See Snelgrove Method

Travelling Screen

Allows bees to breathe/stay cool whilst being transported. When moving a hive over a long distance remove the roof and crownboard and replace with a travelling screen. Hold in place with one or two hive straps. 3mm mesh to ensure no bees escape. £16.59

14x12 Eke

Used to convert a standard brood box to take 14x12 frames. Requires metal runners or castellated spacers (below)

Assembled Cedar £31.96Assembled Red Deal £28.88

National Nucleus Hive

Suitable for 6 Hoffman frames with a higher roof to take 1/4 gallon liquid feeders. Comes with dummy board for easier inspection. Choose a timber and Assembled (Assm) or Flat Pack (FP)

National Nucleus Hive 14x12

As above but 14x12. Choose a timber and Assembled (Assm) or Flat Pack (FP)

Castellated Spacers and Metal Runners

Hive Tools

Mouse Guard

National Entrance Block

Western Red Cedar with a small and large entrance. Made slightly overlength. Cut to fit your hive.

£2.54

Dummy Boards

Choose from National Hive Standard Brood, National 14x12 Brood or National Super

Frames

National Hive Hoffman, DN1 and SN1 Frames are now available in Flat Packs of 10 and 50. All packs come supplied with some frame nails to get you started.

Foundation Wax

National BS Wired Foundation. We Stock the most popular sizes. Deep, Shallow and 14x12 wax foundation.

Plastic Frame Ends

Plastic frame spacers available in narrow and wide. Sold in bags of 100. Plastic ends are available in white in either a narrow or wide spacing.

Nucleus Colonies

If you are interested in a top quality Nucleus Colony on 5 or 6 frames please email nicholas@peak-hives.co.uk and we will pass on your details to our bee breeder Helen. She's an expert with a wealth of experience and produces quality nucs with marked queens. She is also breeding now from newly arrived Buckfast Queens. The 2013 season price per Nucleus Colony is £175.00.

British National Beehives

Based in a small workshop in Tideswell in the Peak District we make British National Beehives out of 1st grade Western Red Cedar, high quality Red Deal or, when available, locally sourced Western Red Cedar according to the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) Modified National Hive Plans. Everything we sell we make here in the Peak District. We also stock other items of Beekeeping Supplies including Frames, Foundation Wax and Hive Tools. The driving forces behind peak-hives.co.uk are sustainability and quality workmanship. Sustainability because, well it matters quite a bit we think and quality workmanship because customer satisfaction is paramount.

Fully Assembled National Hives

Customise to your requirements and choose either 1st grade Cedar or Red Deal. Standard Brood Box and Floor are included in the price. Bottom Bee Space is the National Hive standard so if you want Top Bee Space tick the checkbox. Don't forget to add on your metalwork requirements from the left hand column. We stock metal runners for Hoffman Frames and Castellated Spacers for SN1 etc. Please choose your hive options and extras below:

Supers:

Roof:

Floor:

Crown:

Stand:

14x12 Brood Box + £16.20

Framed Wired Queen Excluder + £17.89

Top Bee Space. Free.

red deal
Red Deal Discount.

Total

Flat Pack National Hives

Customise to your requirements and choose either 1st Grade Cedar or Red Deal. Standard Brood Box and Floor are included in the price. Bottom Bee Space is the National Hive standard so if you want Top Bee Space tick the checkbox. Don't forget to add on your metalwork requirements from the left hand column. We stock metal runners for Hoffman Frames and Castellated Spacers for SN1 etc. Please choose your hive options and extras below:

Supers:

Roof:

Floor:

Crown:

Stand:

14x12 Brood Box + £14.53

Framed Wired Queen Excluder + £17.89

Top Bee Space. Free.

red deal
Red Deal Discount.

Total

webcam...

Want to see your National Hive being made? Here's what's going on in the workshop right now. The image is updated every 10 minutes during working hours. Click to see full size...

blog...

The rest of the centre column is an ongoing blog of what's new at peak-hives.co.uk and other items of interest...veg garden...renewables etc, but please don't let reading about the allotment distract you from placing your order...:-)

Not directly bee related I know but I do like to put a thing or two about our allotment and polytunnel in the blog every now and then. Peach trees blossom very early in the year even before they get leaves and before bees and other pollinating insects are around. So, a tickle with a sable paint brush around all the flowers is the way to spread the pollen and hopefully get a good crop. This is the second year for our peach trees in the polytunnel and they are doing superbly. Last year even though they were only planted the Autumn/Winter before they produced several of the most juicy and surprisingly large and tasty fruit. This year the trees are covered in blossom so it looks like we might be in for a bumper crop.

Peach Blossom

We’re very busy as usual at this time of year and have sent many Cedar National Hives out to customers. It’s very gratifying to see so many repeat customers. We’ve also sent several of our hives to Europe. Last week a Peak Hives Top Bar Hive found it’s way to the Mosel Region of Germany. Our 6 Frame plus a Dummy Board Nucleus Hives are also selling well…must remember to put up the prices…;-)

For the growing season 2014! The Polytunnel is now up and running after a lot of hard graft. 54 feet by 14 feet so lots of room to grow in. Apart from the usual toms, cukes, strawberries and peppers the plan is to propagate bee friendly plants for sale through the Peak Hives website. I’ve started off with Cotoneaster which are now coming on nicely. We’ve got 8 raised beds each 8ft by 4ft and a couple of smaller ones for the children to learn a bit of horticulture. One worry is it’s near to our apiary so I’m hoping we don’t have problems with bees getting caught inside.

Peak Hives Polytunnel

Here’s a picture of recent products coming out of the workshop. A couple of our popular 6 Frame plus a Dummy Board National Nucleus Hives in Western Red Cedar. The customer asked for extra height on the stands and also ordered Nucleus Hives sized queen excluders and supers. We’re getting busier and busier now that the weather seems to be picking up and I’ll probably have to change the turnaround time soon.

Last order of raw materials for National Hive manufacture this season. One Cubic Metre of Canadian Western Red Cedar.

A Cubic Metre of Cedar

Together with what’s already in the store we should have enough for our National Hive and Nucleus Hive orders up to Christmas. It means I can spend a bit of time at the end of each day out of the workshop on other projects and the current job is erecting our polytunnel. 54 feet by 14 feet with double doors at either end. Should be just what we need to extend the growing season up here in the Peak District. Apart from Strawberries etc we will also be using it to start a micro nursery of bee friendly plants. I’ve an extensive list of plants sent us by the British Beekeepers Association and need to decide on a couple of dozen which are not too difficult to propagate to get started.

Got a call today from one of the local Youth Hostels. They have a healthy colony that for some years has resided in a roof and it had swarmed. Nick, the manager, called and asked if I could capture the swarm as he was concerned about the youngsters in the hostel.

As quick as I could I got together all the requisite National Hive items and donned my bee suit and headed down there. Lovely swarm of bees hanging in a tree bough at chest height that was easily pulled down into the hive and snipped off with secateurs. New colony for our apiary!!! Tomorrow I’ll be off down to the apiary to put a feeder on and open up the entrance. With a bit of luck and sugar they’ll build up for the winter and won’t be ‘chasers’. Last swarm we had were chasing me out of the veg garden.

France hols (2 weeks) beckons and after a busy season we’re all ready for a break.

Now we have a printer that’s working I’ve finally printed up some labels for our Tideswell Dale Honey. It’s a simple affair and doesn’t precisely conform to the honey labelling regulations etc but we’re only going to sell around 60 of these jars locally.

Hi. Answering a few queries I’ve had about fitting metalwork to National Hive Brood Boxes and Supers here’s a quick and simple guide to correctly fitting metal rails to the woodwork. The image is more or less self explanatory but the essence of the procedure is to turn the brood/super upside down and place some sized bits of timber (10mm for bottom bee space and 18mm for top bee space) under the metal runner to give the correct gap. The metal runner just rests on top of the wooden spacers while you pin it into place. Once done you are guaranteed the correct chosen bee space.

Bee Space Spacers

Time to squeeze in an allotment update…

Spring is finally here in the Peak District so here’s a photo (panorama of four photos stitched together) of where I’m currently up to.

Lots of red onions because my partner Adriana is from Peru and they’re used widely in Peruvian cooking. A new area for soft fruit (Blackcurrants, more Rhubarb, Autumn and Summer Raspberries, Redcurrants, various varieties of Gooseberries and more…) replacing a nettle patch that discouraged the family from venturing down to do some weeding/fettling.

Prior to this year the plot had been one area with treaded down paths every 4 feet or so and nettles all round. I was given some weatherproof boards back end of last year and slowly started making up the raised beds in the picture.

On the far right there’s one high raised bed which will be followed by three more of which two will be given to the kids to grow what they will and two will be used for root veg or spuds.

Amor Mio!

The panorama is perhaps a future bees eye view as I’ve taken the photos from where I’m planning on putting my two Apis Mellifera Mellifera colonies that I have coming in a few weeks.

Hi. Rich came up on Wednesday to the Peak Hives workshop and picked up his flat packed national hives. Was good to see him again and Steve who came along too. Rich is an experienced beekeeper so by agreement (and the fact that they wouldn’t fit into his car otherwise) I didn’t seperate them out into individual units.

Here’s the kit he took…

Rich's Hives

I’m getting plenty of enquiries about making up batches of frames and will endeavour to have a go this weekend (I do have to make a special meal for the oldies though on Saturday as it’s their golden wedding anniversary). The other thing that I need to respond to is enquiries about ‘top bee space’ national hives. It’s technically sorted but I want to have a go at machining some up before offering it as an option. Coming soon, probably tomorrow.

Allotment news is that I made some space this afternoon for another fruit tree in the garden…it’s getting tight on space and I’ve another two trees to plant. I wonder if the farmer who owns the field across the road would mind.

Now that the big freeze is over (at least for the moment it looks that way) we’re back in production. Here’s a British National Hive with 2 Supers in Red Deal.

British National Hive in Red Deal

Here’s to a successful beekeeping 2010. I’m long overdue to start frame making and I’m compiling a list of potential customers for DN4, SN1 etc. Hopefully I’ll be able to get that thin kerf blade in use soon…

Allotment news is that I’ve just planted 2 out of 6 trees supplied by Rogers of Pickering. 1 Bramleys Seedling and 1 Spartan apple (recommended by Carl with thanks). I’ve a couple of pear trees to plant next (Buerre Hardy and Conference) and 20 odd raspberry canes along with some plum trees and gooseberry bushes. When we moved here as a family in the early 60s all these things were here and producing fruit. Somehow they’ve been left to grow old and wither…(I blame the supermarkets..grrr). With some luck and cultivation we’ll be back to picking our own fruit in a couple of seasons…

To Order

You can purchase everything for a National Hive here on a single page. If you’re looking at buying a complete hive then please use the center column…for National Hive parts please use the left hand column.
You can view your order at any time here…

You can also call Nicholas or Adriana on 07594 583 151 but emailing is best as it allows Nick to be more productive in the workshop and get orders out earlier. All hives / hive parts are custom made to order. Please remember that our priorities are quality and sustainability and not making a quick profit out of mass produced items.

If you have a large order (eg 10 plus hives) then discounts will be available. Please call to discuss but please remember our prices are already very competitive.

Delivery/Collection

If you’re within pickup distance then we welcome collection in person direct from our workshop in Tideswell. Otherwise UK mainland delivery charges are as follows:

If your order is to ship to Northern Ireland, The Channel Islands, Republic of Ireland or the Highlands and Islands please add extra postage by clicking this button…

Peak Hives is, and will remain, a small cottage industry. We have a small dedicated workshop and Nick makes all our products to order. Due to the huge increase in interest in beekeeping we are very busy at the moment. If you have a time critical order then please call Nick/Adriana on 07594 583 151 and we will always try our best to accommodate your needs.

Please note that the current turn around on orders is approximately 5 weeks.

Testimonials

"...just wanted to say a massive thankyou for my hive, it is beautiful! I get my bees on Saturday and i'm really proud to have them in your hive! You now have a devoted customer..."

"...Just to let you know that my nuc hive arrived bang on time and I am delighted with it! Many thanks for the great service. It is very helpful to have updates via email and text concerning delivery date/time.

I’m sure I’ll be back for more...!..."

"...Fantastic! Just what I was after and they’ve turned out a treat. Really happy with the product and the quality is fab. So much so that I might be after another 10..."

"...It’s lovely and I’m so pleased with the workmanship too.
The service has been fantastic all round and I’ll definitely be buying from you again in the future!..."

"...It's great to be able to support an individual artisan who, not only produces a great product, but also goes the extra mile for customer service...."

"...The Ashford feeders are superb, the boxes and hive stand perfect - I couldn't be more pleased...."

"...delighted with the hive. Thank you so much, it looks great. Will spread the word amongst the members of our local group and more if ever I get the opportunity..."

"...We received the 2 assembled units today and are thrilled with the excellent improved design. Well worth waiting for..."

"...it's very very good stuff, thank you. It's very well made, I like the solid looking frame on the queen excluder.... Thanks a lot! A satisfied customer..."

"...a truly amazing business and I will spread the word in our club. I guess that is why I would not go elsewhere quality is worth the wait..."

"...It is great to trade with a business like yours where the benefits go straight to you and your family..."

"...I am very pleased with both the quality of the workmanship and the manner in which the package was delivered....The bees have settled in very quickly and they appear to be happy with their new home! Thank you very much for your excellent service...."

"...thank you both for being a British company making something in a traditional way. I wish you the best of luck and will be ordering more soon I'm sure..."

"...Arrived safely. Brilliant customer service..."

"...Just wanted to say thank you so much for making and dispatching my order so quickly! Really appreciate it Nick! (so will the bees)..."

"...Your hives are of outstanding quality and worth the delivery time wait..."

"...So pleased with the stand, as sturdier than the new ones of today! Keeping the stand and brood box indoors for the the lovely cedar smell rather than store in the bee shed and until the spring when I can use. I will be back for more orders and will recommend you..."

"...delivered the Outstanding Varroa Floor this morning. Please thank Nicholas for his efforts on making the Hive Items I ordered promptly and to the usual high quality.."

"...Thank you for sending my additional hive parts so quickly. I am very pleased with the hive which was also appreciated by a group of bee inspectors..."

"...as with my previous order, everything was beautifully made and easy and straightforward to assemble..."

"...Hi, I’ve just received my new nucleus hive and I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s far too nice to go outside, it’s more like a piece of furniture!..."

"...The quality looks really good, and I am looking forward to assembling the first one to see how they look."

"...Once again I compliment you on the top quality of your products, excellent, it's nice doing business with someone who cares..."

"...arrived and look excellent - the nuke in particular is a masterpiece"

"...really gratifying to know that there are still craftspeople in this world who can turn out high quality products, use sustainable business practices and materials, still charge an accessible price and deal with customers in a friendly manner..."

"...thanks for the hive its gone together well and is now waiting for its bees!"

"...arrived this morning, very nice, I am well pleased with it."

"...Just to say thanks for you effort to get the bee hive to us. The brother-in-law is a happy fellow..."

"...were easy to assemble and all functioning...The quality of timber is also so much better than other ones I've had..."

"...Nuc’s just arrived. Many thanks for getting it out to me before the weekend. It looks really good, can’t wait to put it together so I can split my colony and put it to some good use..."

Flat Pack Assembly

Click the links below to download pdf files containing assembly instructions for our flat pack National Hives. Please give Nick a call on 07594 583151 if you're unsure about any step in the process.